An Update on Trypanosoma Infection in Livestock of Karnataka State, India

Accepted: 29/09/2015 Abstract Trypanosoma evansi and T. theileri are the two species of trypanosomes recorded from Karnataka state. The former one is the common species of livestock, dogs and zoo animals, but the latter was rarely reported from bovines. Only low infection rate of clinical cases of T. evansi in bovines was observed based on routine staining of blood smears. The efficacy of wet smear method, buffy coat technique and formol-gel test have been assessed, but serological methods such as PHA, ELISA and EITB are found to be more efficient to detect carriers to infection. Studies on PCR based diagnostic tools targeting variable and invariable surface proteins of T. evansi indicated that T. evansi isolates of buffaloes and dogs were belonged to RoTat 1.2 strain. The expressed recombinant variable glycoprotein is found helpful in serodiagnosis of T. evansi. A molecular diagnosis by PCR was attempted using primer pair for amplification of DNA at 488bp. But none of the blood samples from captive animals reacted at this amplicon except the isolates maintained in mice. Among captive animals, canine isolate was highly virulent followed by leopard isolate. Studies on heat shock protein 90 provided valuable information on strain isolates and drug targeting. T. evansi was implicated as a probable etiological agent for abortion in cattle and buffaloes. Tabanid flies of Karnataka including some known vectors of T. evansi were identified. Infections were cured efficiently by diminazene diaceturate and Antrycide curative injections. The extract of plant, Punica granatum was found to reduce the motility of T. evansi.